Adobe Photoshop Touch is a surprisingly power version of Adobe's photo editor for iPad

The iPad is not a platform that is usually associated with serious work, but the ever-increasing diversity of apps available means that familiar desktop tools are being made available. We have already seen a number of office and productivity tools finding their way into the App Store, and there is already a version of Photoshop available for iPhone. Adobe Photoshop Touch is a new version of Adobe’s image editing tool, designed specifically with the iPad in mind.

The larger screen of Apple’s tablet means that it is easier to work with images that when using the iPhone diminutive display and there is an impressive array of tools that you can use to work with your pictures. The big news in this app is that there is a support for layers which opens up a whole new world of editing options. Obviously you do not gain access to the full gamut of features found in the desktop version of the software, but there is a very impressive subset available.

There are a range of selection tools to choose from as well as distortion options and a large number of filters and effects. You can make use of AirPrint to print your projects and there are a number of sharing options to choose from. Working with a touch screen version of Photoshop is very different to the desktop version of the app, but there are a number of tutorial built in that help to introduce you to the new way of interacting with the software.

As has become the norm, this is a cloud aware app, and you can connect to Adobe Creative Cloud to grab images that you have already uploaded, and use this as an online repository for your new creations. You can also grab images from Facebook – which can also be used to share your work – and the file browser also includes integrated Google image search so you can download image from the internet to edit. This is an app that oozes quality. The price tag is one of the higher ones to be found in the App Store, but it is easily justified.

New 1.2 features include:

• You may now increase the resolution to 2048x2048 with 10 layers. Default is 1600x1600 with 16 layers, but you can change it in Preferences.
• Automatic synchronization with Creative Cloud

Verdict:

Powerful enough to be used for serious work, but cheap enough to be used for fun, this is the most advanced image editor available for the iPad.

There's a vast amount to learn, of course, and that's even before you start building your game. But there's plenty of documentation, tutorials, demos and sample projects to point you in the right direction.

The package is now entirely free, too - no annoying limitations, nag screens or anything else. Epic now only requires that you pay a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. And even then, you "pay no royalty for film projects, contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualization."